Name:

Andrea Rosenfeld

Title:

Artist, Business Coach, Founder/CEO

How long have you been in operation:

Four years (2 in NJ and 2 in MI)

What inspired you to start your business?

Artists, makers and designers have little to no access to targeted, business strategies or business education so as they are enormously talented and committed to increasing their creative skill sets and experiences, they stall and submit to their fears when they begin to engage in business building and profiting from their art. DABI’s vision is to be a national leader in creative business growth through holistic education, deep connection building and targeted relationship and sales opportunities.

What are some struggles you faced when trying to achieve your goals?

The biggest challenge I face is what artists don’t know when it comes to building their business. When I’m introduced to an artist and I share that I’m a business coach specific to our creative community the first thing they envision is that I can either a. build their website or b. become their agent. That’s typically the extent of their business knowledge so I have to carefully explain that there’s more to moving towards success than merely marketing and selling. But I find that once they “get it” they become excited to learn and sign up for either private coaching or my Mind Your Art Business, 8-week course.

What is one of your most notable triumphs?What is one piece of advice you would give to those who want to be entrepreneurs?

I teach holistically so I stress that a small business owner must build their business from the inside out; set their integrity, respect and communication levels, detail the types of business relationships they want to engage in and COMMIT to these personalized tenets.

Where do you envision your business and Detroit in 10 years?

As a professional artist, to me everything shifts and morphs while in the midsts of its creation so it’s hard to envision anything even a day from now. But dreaming is good and planning is better so I envision Detroit as a more modern version of its best self. I see the creative community as a large contributor of its redevelopment and Detroit Art & Business Institute will be on the sidelines, quietly and effectively coaching, educating and supporting the art and design communities to help them profit and connect with small businesses, bringing innovation and excitement to ALL communities.

Finish this sentence: Detroit / Michigan / Your City needs…?

The WORLD needs people as passionate, generous, innovative and spirited as the people in Detroit. The energy here is palpable and the opportunity to build something special while engaging with others who are ALSO building something special is exquisite. *Oh, and metro Detroit needs a professional, art supply consignment shop so I’m going to open one called D*FINDS.